Wireless communications are extending beyond traditional mobile voice and data devices. Unlike these traditional devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, also known as Machine-Type Communication (MTC) devices, wirelessly communicate with little or no human intervention. For example, an M2M device may autonomously collect and send information to a supporting M2M server via a wireless communication network. This autonomous machine communication broadens the reach of useful wireless services to include smart utility consumption applications, like smart utility metering.
Known approaches to smart utility metering employ M2M devices that dynamically monitor and report utility consumption details to a centralized server at a utility company (e.g., an electric company, a gas company, a water company, or other provider of an important public utility). Some M2M devices can also receive communications from the centralized server, such as outage notifications, pricing information, or peak consumption shutoff commands. With all communications flowing in this way vertically between an M2M device and the centralized server, these known approaches are described herein as adopting a purely vertical communication structure.
The purely vertical communication structure remains relatively simple to implement. And the structure certainly provides a utility company and its customers with increased information and control, for making intelligent consumption decisions with regard to a particular utility. Yet the structure inherently requires employing M2M devices that are all inter-operable with the same centralized server, a requirement that is practically infeasible amongst multiple utility companies. As a result, the structure fails to offer a solution for comprehensive consumption information and control across different utilities, different utility companies, and/or different types of M2M devices.